ברכת כהנים

The famous ברכה, which the Kohanim where instructed by Hashem to bless the Bnei Yisroel each day, consists of three short sentences. They appear in Torah in the middle of Parshas נשא.

Much has been written about these famous brochos, there are numerous medrashim and all the meforshim comment and elaborate on the blessings.

I would like to add a few of my own thoughts.

The first sentence of ברכת כהנים consists of three words. The second has five words and the third, seven words. There are fifteen words in total. Accordingly, the last word of the middle sentence, ויחנך, is the middle word altogether, being the eighth word, having seven words before and seven after it.

The root of the word ויחנך is חן, namely grace. What we are saying is that the פנימיות, the inner core of all the brochos which the Kohanim gave, is that Hashem will give us חן. But what is the definition of that word?

We find that the last verse at the end of sedra Beraishis reads as follows.
ונח מצא חן בעיני ה', Noach found grace and favour in the eyes of Hashem.

What I suggest is that he found that particular חן because he, unlike the rest of his generation, adhered to the original righteousness with which Odom Harishon was created. If we go back to the story of the sixth day of creation when Odom Harishon was created, we find that the 58th word, נח = חן, from the beginning of that parsha is בצלם אלקים, in the image of Hashem. What I am suggesting is that in the same way as נח has this חן by retaining the צלם אלקים, the Kohanim are blessing us all, that Hashem should, once again, enable us to have it , and not lose the צלם אלקים.


If we look at the first posek, which reads as follows, יברכך יהו - ה וישמרך, we find that first letters are י, י and ו which add up to 26. This is a hint to the numerical value of יהו'. The end letters are ך, ה and ך which themselves add up to 45. That is equivalent to the numerical value of אדם, namely 45. It is also equivalent to the name of Hashem written out as follows יוד = 20, הא = 6, ואו = 13 and הא = 6. This totals 45.

I believe that this comes to emphasise the fact that Hashem, יהו', will bless and guard all of us, אדם, from all angles and in all ways.


ברכת כהנים is a מצות עשה a positive command which is supposed to be carried out by the Kohanim every day. This is actually done in Jerusalem, Bnei Brak and the general southern part of our Holy Land. In the Galilee, I believe that the custom is only to make ברכת כהנים on Shabbos and Yom Tov. In the Diaspora, the custom is that the ברכת כהנים is only carried out on Yomim Tovim.

There are various reasons given as to why these important brochos are not given every day in גלות. Furthermore, if there is no Kohen at a particular minyan, the brocho is not made wherever this minyan is praying, being Jerusalem, Haifa or London for example.

The ברכת כהנים are included in the Shemona Esrai for Shacharis and even if there is no Kohen it is recited. We ask Hashem to bless us immediately before the last brocho, namely שים שלום.

Why do we not leave out that section if there are no Kohanim present, or in golus if we are talking about any time other than Yom Tov?

May I suggest that the last two words of the whole parsha, ואני אברכם, and I will bless them give us the clue.. I believe that these two words can be interpreted to mean that if in the event of the Kohanim not actually physically blessing the Yidden, Hashem will do it himself, ואני אברכם.

May we all be gebentched.